Last night (as mentioned previously) I kicked back and watched a couple episodes of “Smallville” – the new one from a couple weeks ago that had Christopher Reeve in it, and the rerun than aired last night, the one with red kryptonite red meteor rocks in it.
Lemme tell you, watching a couple episodes back-to-back like that made me remember both why I love this show and why I’m sometimes embarassed to admit it.
I love “Smallville” for one simple reason: Lionel and Lex Luthor are two of the most thoroughly enjoyable characters on the small screen these days (at least from what little TV I watch. I suppose there may well be a plethora of fascinating antiheroes out there, but I don’t get to see ’em thanks to my lack of TV-watching time).
Lex and Lionel are charming, deeply flawed, and very driven guys. Lex wants to be good but he also wants to be successful. He wants to have Clark as his friend, but can’t quite bring himself to be completely honest with Clark – even though it makes him nuts when he knows Clark isn’t being completely honest with him.
Lionel, on the other hand, knows he’s great and successful. He worries about his son and about his own blindness (a rather soap-opera development that John Glover is handling brilliantly). He can be wonderfully manipulative, wicked, and downright nasty.
Schweet stuff, there. Especially since the writers seem to be fond of the Luthors as well, and tend to give them snappy, deliciously snarky dialogue. Well, and the massive subtext between Clark and Lex doesn’t hurt either. ;)
Unfortunately, last night’s pair of episodes didn’t feature either Luthor very heavily, and the other characters are really kind of embarassing in large doses. Clark, his parents, and Pete are so wholesome! Chloe is so chipper! Lana is so self-centered! Argh!
So… I spent last night yelling at the TV, thoroughly enjoying the handful of scenes with Lex and Lionel in them and making gagging noises most of the rest of the time.
